


Five Conversations had with friends (and one with a total stranger)

by follypersist



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: Bluff City, Post-Messy Business
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:00:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22342981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/follypersist/pseuds/follypersist
Summary: In Bluff City and beyond, it is an anniversary. A new year. Things to be celebrated. Plans to be made. Interference to be run.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9
Collections: Secret Samol 2019





	Five Conversations had with friends (and one with a total stranger)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sweet potato (swt_potato)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/swt_potato/gifts).


    
    
                                                                               
                                                                               
              EXT. GRAVEYARD                                                   
                                                                               
              CHRISTINE ANDREWS stands up from a crouch, dusting off the       
              knees of her long jacket. She looks down at the grave she        
              has been visiting. It is inscribed with the text of John         
              10:27 and one name: HECTOR HU.                                   
                                                                               
                                  CHRIS                                        
                        Good talk.                                             
                                         

* * *

Outside, the sidewalk is slick with muddied and half-melted snow. It's unseasonably warm, the mid-50's, but maybe that's what winter is like here. Inside, the Starbucks inside the Barnes & Nobles is lit and spacious. That is all that is needed for what Heard insists on calling, to the other member's chagrin, **The Bailiwick**. A cover of Auld Lang Syne, by a chorus accompanied by a banjo, plays over the big box store speakers, despite it being more than a week into January.

"More than a week into January. Can you believe it?" Director Heard says, in disbelief.

"Yes. Yes, I can." Maggie Darcy replies, monotone, sipping her coffee. She has been drinking more coffee, lately. She always drank some, but the cigarettes in this place are strange and glowing and she is trying to quit, rather than transition to a "vapored" form of nicotine. It has left her on edge, and in need of a habit to occupy her mouth. Coffee fulfills the latter issue. Her fellow members of "The Bailiwick" appear not to have noticed the former. "It is not so unbelievable that whoever curates this playlist might've not noticed it since it's not, y'know, a christmas song."

Hector takes off his glasses and polishes them with a handkerchief, maybe silk, maybe something else. "I cannot say how glad I am to be past the holidays. There is something infernal about the connective tissue of time that place is in, the wraparound effects of always being in the midst of winter and never being done with Christmas, the climax of the thing! It is a boon to be in January. I am glad of whatever comes next."

Chris shares a smile with him. "Now that there _is_ a next."

"Do you mean like Narnia?" a fifth voice interrupts. The woman to whom it belongs is in a fur-lined coat and has an ruby smile. She's been sitting at the table next to Maggie, reading something on her tablet, but apparently she could overhear. "I'm sorry, I've been able to overhear. Are you talking about Narnia?"

Maggie pierces the newcomer with a two-eyed glare. "What's Narnia?"

"Oh, Narnia! You know, the broom-cupboard? No, I have that wrong, the Witch and the Ward-robe." The woman replies. Hector flinches, briefly. She goes on. "It's this place where you go through, like, special doors, or the back of the wardrobe? And anyways it's always winter there and never yet christmas, it's a thing they say, in the movies!"

Maggie's first instinct was to deflect and move on, but honestly the details are a little too serendipitous. She puts on a smile - fake to the Bailiwick but real to this new informant - and moves one table over to join her new friend. "Do you have any pictures of this place? Have you been there?"

The woman introduces herself as Lucy. "Oh, but you're funny though. Been there! Ha! But I have been to England, you know, though not where they shot the movies, I don't think. Now that I think about it - here, you see? Stills from the movie. The first one, anyways, I think they had to replace some of the actors after the first one. You know actors. But it's possible they weren't even shot in England, I know many things are shot up in Canada these days, it's more conducive to filming."

Hector licks his lips while Agent Seals is busy busying Lucy out of the actual business at hand. He turns back to his two partners in crime, in law, and in something like justice. "So. To business at hand."

* * *
    
    
                                                                               
              EXT. CAFE                                                        
                                                                               
              Extreme close-up of a cafe table. The drinks on it are a         
              whiskey sour, in front of TYLER TAYLOR PIERCE, in a suit a       
              little too nice, and a nondescript latte in front of PATTY       
              FINK, a woman with frizzy hair. As the camera zooms out, we      
              see the table and the drinkers are outside, along a brick        
              wall, amid conversation. Across the street is a sign for St.     
              Cajetan’s Cemetery.                                              
                                                                               
                                  PATTY                                        
                        The banana joke is _physical_.                           
                                                                               
                                  TYLER                                        
                        The banana joke is served through                      
                        repetition.                                            
                                                                               
                                  PATTY                                        
                        What, say orange enough times and                      
                        it doesn’t sound like a real word?                     
                                                                               
              The camera holds still as Patty proceeds to repeat the word      
              "orange" over the next line. The two at the table do not         
              notice the woman crossing the street from St. Cajetan’s to       
              them, but she is the only moving object in the field of          
              view.                                                            
                                                                               
                                  TYLER                                        
                        No, you say orange enough times                        
                        it’ll surprise you when they say                       
                        ’banana’.                                              
                                                                               
              PATTY turns and makes a crude gesture to a nearby waiter.        
              The waiter nods in response. The woman approaches.   

* * *

"What do you know about the higher levels of The Concern?" Hector sips his coffee amicably, invitingly, inviting repartee.

"Enough not to trust anything that I'd think I know about them." Heard smiles back. 

"Their origin." Chris supplies, clipped.

"Right, you mentioned that you thought they were from *here*. Hector, do you know why? Or are you really as much in the dark as the rest of us?" Heard's smile stays, but the joy has left and been replaced with a real question.

"How far had you gotten into Countinghouse before you joined the..." wincingly, Hector finishes his question. " **The Bailiwick**?"

"They had considered me for promotion. Seriously considered me. I could've been - I was on a temporary basis - an actual senior agent."

Hector nods. "You must've met some in your time who had given up before Deep Blue. I'm not certain, had you gone the extra mile, you could've followed me to this place."

"But Hector - what's the deal with these places? Is there really only one bridge into Bluffington? Are there any number? Infinite? Can they be constructed?" Director Heard narrows his eyes, accenting his curiosity, staring deep into Hector's. (Hector's curiosity. He's also staring into Hector's eyes, but the possessive refers to curiosity in this case.)

"I'm sorry, I couldn't help but overhear - are you talking about the computer?" Lucy asks. 

Chris looks around. Hector and _Director_ Heard are transfixed by one another, jockeying for superiority or the first to spill secrets, each sipping coffee discreetly without blinking or looking away. Agent Seals is outside the window, smoking, clearly done with dealing with people and with a world in which you can't smoke indoors. It's her turn now, she supposes. "Hi, Lucy. What?"

"The computer. You know, the computer?"

"There is a computer?"

"Yes! Deep blue!" Lucy intones. "It's one of the most powerful computers ever invented! Or engineered. Built? Is that what you say about computers?"

"Computers are manufactured." Chris knows that giving an inch here could be the extra mile Hector had mentioned.

"Yes, but, this was a specific computer. Like a person! You know, Watson on Jeopardy?"

"I... Yes, I know what's non-jeopardy. Everything is fine here."

Lucy looks confused. Chris, in return, looks placid, but feels pleased. This might clear the air.

Lucy continues. "Anyways, I heard that nice man mention Deep Blue, and it beat Kasparov, you know, though that was the 90's, and I'm sure there have been new inventions since then."

Chris is nonplussed, refusing to react. "Thank you."

Hector chooses his words carefully. "One of the funny things about this world is how things - chance encounters, choices you make, people you meet - can mean absolutely nothing, at all."

* * *
    
    
    EXT. CAFE                                                        
                                                                               
                                  CHRIS                                        
                        You guys could actually come see                       
                        his grave, you know.                                   
       
                                  TYLER                                        
                        Hector’s like family to me, but                        
                        actually, I can’t. That’s the                          
                        territory of the Night’s Choir, of                     
                        which I refuse to play a part.                         
                                                                               
                                  CHRIS                                        
                        The night’s choir?                                     
                                                                               
                                  TYLER                                        
                        Yeah, you know. The nocturnal                          
                        ambassadors? The corporate                             
                        vigilantes. They asked me to join                      
                        up but I prefer to keep my affairs                     
                        private.                                               
                                                                               
                                  PATTY                                        
                        Your affairs, but not other                            
                        peoples’?                                              
                                                                               
                                  TYLER                                        
                        No, I want to keep my business                         
                        private.                                               
                                                                               
                                  PATTY                                        
                        So you don’t want them snooping in                     
                        on your business?                                      
                                                                               
                                  TYLER                                        
                        No, I don’t want them snooping in                      
                        on my clients. That’d be bad, for                      
                        my business.                                           
                                                                               
                                  CHRIS                                        
                        Do you think you work better alone?                    
                                                                               
                                  TYLER                                        
                        The verdict’s still out on that                        
                        one.                                                   
                                                                               
                                  CHRIS                                        
                        Let me know where to make an                           
                        appeal.                                                
                                                                               
              A waiter arrives setting on the table a highball glass for       
              CHRIS and a small bowl of fruit for PATTY.                       
                                                                               
                                  PATTY                                        
                             (eating)                                          
                        I appreciate the heads-up. I have a                    
                        new business open nearby and I want                    
                        to stay abreast.                                       
                                                                                
                                  CHRIS                                        
                        Patty you said that it’s nearby...?                         
                                                                               
                                  PATTY                                        
                        You hit the nail on the head. Yeah,                    
                        there’s a tent in the park nearby I                    
                        charge admission to.                                   
                                                                               
                                  TYLER                                        
                        Okay, that’s gonna raise a lot of                      
                        questions I’m not sure I wanna know                    
                        the answer to.                                         
                                                                               
                                  CHRIS                                        
                        I’ll bite. Is there anything... in                     
                        the tent?                                              
                                                                               
                                  PATTY                                        
                        Well, you would know if you’d been                     
                        inside it.                                             
                                                                               
                                  CHRIS                                        
                        Can you show me?                                       
                                                                               
                                  PATTY                                        
                             (grinning)                                        
                        If you buy a ticket.                                   
                                                                               
                                  CHRIS                                        
                        That seals the deal. This is a                         
                        purely mercantile relationship.                        
                                                                               
                                  PATTY                                        
                        Listen, I’m just out here selling                      
                        my wares!                                              
                                                                               
              PATTY stands and leads CHRIS away down the sidewalk,             
              ostensibly in the direction of "nearby", dropping her banana     
              peel as she goes.                                                
                                                                               
                                  TYLER                                        
                             (muttering)                                       
                        Out here selling your wares...                         
                        Sounds like a con to me.                               
                                                                               
              He stands and begins to follow, out of curiosity or not          
              wanting to be left out. Maybe PATTY has gotten under his         
              skin.                                                            
                                                                               
                                  TYLER                                        
                        Oh sure, _that’s_ not a con tent, a                      
                        ware - wHOaoA!                                         
                                                                               
              He wipes out.                                                    
                                                                               
                                  TYLER                                        
                        ...peel! hey! PATTY YOU CAN’T JUST                    
                        LEAVE YOUR PEELS ON THE GROUND LIKE                    
                        THAT!                                                  
                                                                               
                                  PATTY                                        
                             (turning to face him while                        
                             walking backwards away from                       
                             him and cupping her hands to                      
                             answer)                                           
                        THAT’S THE BANANA JOKE!                                
                                                                               
                                                                               
                                                                               
                                                                               
                                                                               
                                                                               
                                                                               
                                                                               
                                                                               
                                                                               
                                                                               
                                                                               
                                                                               
                                                                               
                                                                               
                                                                               
                                                                               
                                                                               
                                                                               
                                                                               
                                                                               
                                                                               
                                                    
                                                                               
                                                                               

**Author's Note:**

> John 10:27, NIV. "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me."


End file.
